Smithsonian's History Explorer Resources Related To "COBOL"

Treasures of American History: Creativity and Innovation

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:55:17 GMT

In this section of the online exhibition entitled Treasures of American History, students will learn how the creative and innovative genius of Americans has led to the reinvention of daily and business life, the redefinition of popular culture and the creation of artistic masterpieces. A Spanish version of the exhibition is available on the exhibition's homepage.

ENIAC Accumulator #2

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:57:26 GMT

The ENIAC was a large, general-purpose digital computer built to compute ballistics tables for U.S. Army artillery during World War II. Occupying a room 30 feet by 50 feet, ENIAC—the Electrical Numerical Integrator and Computer—weighed 30 tons and used some 18,000 vacuum tubes. It could compute 1,000 times faster than any existing device. Technicians used external plug wires, like those shown here, to program the machine.

Apple "Classic" Macintosh Personal Computer

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:41:46 GMT

The Apple Macintosh introduced a graphic user interface (GUI) to the Apple line of computers. The idea had originated at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s, but Xerox was slow to commercialize it. Apple proved far more successful when it introduced the Macintosh in January 1984, with a splashy television advertisement during the Superbowl. The original price was around $2,500.

Instead of typing out names of programs on command lines, users with a GUI could click "icons," or pictures that represented the programs they wanted to run. They could also execute functions like saving, moving, or deleting files by clicking and dragging the icons around the screen with a pointing device called a mouse. Apple's version of the mouse had a single button, which became an Apple standard. The first Macintosh had only 128K RAM, and users quickly found this insufficient. The Macintosh 512 KB, nicknamed "Fat Mac," was introduced in September 1984. It gave users four times as much memory, and allowed them to keep several major programs open simultaneously. The vertical processor case and 9" monochrome screen were distinguishing features of all the early Macintosh line.

The Macintosh 512 KB contained a Motorola 68000 microprocessor which ran at 8 MHz. It contained 512 KB of RAM and 64 KB of ROM and initially had a 400 KB Floppy disk drive. Applications included MacWrite, a word processor, and MacPaint, a drawing program that turned the mouse into a paintbrush. Shortly after the 512 KB appeared, Apple also introduced a LaserWriter printer, which enabled desktop publishing for individuals and small businesses. Over time, Apple computers would appeal most strongly to artists and designers, while the IBM/DOS line of computers sold better in business markets.

After selling hundreds of thousands of units, Apple discontinued the "Mac Classic" line of computers in April 1986. The Apple Macintosh introduced a graphic user interface (GUI) to the Apple line of computers.

Hollerith Tabulating Machine

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 14:24:51 GMT

During the 1880s, the engineer Herman Hollerith devised a set of machines for compiling data from the United States Census. Hollerith's tabulating system included a punch for entering data about each person onto a blank card, a tabulator for reading the cards and summing up information, and a sorting box for sorting the cards for further analysis. Hollerith's tabulating system won a gold medal at the 1889 World's Fair in Paris, and was used successfully the next year to count the results of the 1890 Census. His inventions formed the starting point of a company that would become IBM.